No city has a more dramatic history than London: fire, plague, and riots have shaken its spirit, but never brought it down. The extraordinary story unfolds here through a combination of artifacts, maps, documents, paintings, photographs, and unparalleled writing. From its origins as a Roman outpost to its role as a source of inspiration for Dickens, the city’s history is filled with tales of mayhem and power.

New edition with facsimile documents now printed in the book.

Jerry White is Visiting Professor in London History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the foremost historian of modern London. His London in the 20th Century: a City and Its People (Penguin) won the Wolfson History Prize for 2001; and his bestselling London in the 19th Century: “A Human Awful Wonder of God” (Jonathan Cape) was published to critical acclaim in 2007. This trilogy on modern London was completed by London in the 18th Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing, published by Random House in 2012; one critic wrote, “White brings a diligence and contagious zest that may serve to discourage anyone from ever tackling the subject again.”